Sotomayor is a radical. Actually, there's some common sense in some of her statements/decisions, but there's a lot more that is definitely odd. But all the arguments about her aside, if she has had so many decisions overturned by the Supreme Court, shouldn't that be a clue? That includes one that was rejected unanimously, including by that exemplar of liberal judicial interpretation, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This does not bespeak a legal powerhouse.
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I had real problems with the way democrats treated court appointments during the past eight years, so I'm trying to be intellectually honest and allow for what I believe: the people elect a president, and the president has the right to nominate his choices for the court. The Senate's role should be to check for qualifications, but not to screen for ideology. What the democrats did to Thomas was a crime, and the fact that most of them couldn't bring themselves to acknowledge that Roberts was qualified to be on the court says far more about them than it does about Justice Roberts.
ReplyDeleteSo I hope the republicans do the responsible thing. Screen for qualifications, but don't go for petty revenge.
There is, of course, a fine line to be drawn here: there are some opinions which would disqualify someone from the court. Clearly, I believe, openly expressed racism would be one. So would, in my opinion, a belief that the courts should be used to "make policy". And one could make the case that Sodomayor has done both of these -- she apparently stated that a Latino female might be able to reach more just decisions than a white male (so much for that blindfold on Lady Justice!) and expressly stated in an off-hand remark that circuit courts do make policy. I believe the republicans should press her a bit on those statements, and I believe she should (and probably will) back away from them. Making a careless statement should not disqualify her from the bench, but the record should be established that such views are not appropriate for those who sit on the highest court.